Several definitions of "rural" are available for national and provincial analysis using the databases at Statistics Canada. We compare six in this paper. Each definition emphasizes different criteria (population size, density, context) and has different associated thresholds. The size of the...

In 1991, 33 percent of Canada's population lived in predominantly rural regions. Employment growth in rural regions averaged 1.3 percent per year over the 1980s, ranking fourth among OECD countries. In 1991, only 11 percent of the rural workforce in Canada were working in agriculture, forestry...

Rural Canada is experiencing considerable "demographic pressure" as 1.76 rural persons are now looking for a job for each rural person retiring from the workforce. Rural Canada appears disadvantaged. Among OECD countries, Canada has the biggest urban-rural gap in the share of the workforce (aged...

Agricultural statistics programs typically focus on the production and sale of agricultural products. Thus, only units with farming activities are "in scope". The farm population is declining relatively and absolutely in developed countries. Rural employment solutions will not come from...

Rural and small town Canada continues to grow. Rural and small town growth rates vary widely among the provinces. Much of the growth within rural and small town areas is in the small towns. Sub-provincial data show wide regional differences within each province. The population in larger urban...

Non-metropolitan areas in Canada are often simply referred as rural Canada, without enough attention paid to their inner differences. The Metropolitan Influence Zones (MIZ) conceptual framework allows us to divide non-metropolitan areas into No Metropolitan Influence Zone (No MIZ), Weak...

We estimate the impact of the removal of a railway transportation subsidy on the local economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, exploiting the large regional variation in these one-time freight rate increases. We find that higher freight rates - and hence lower farm gate prices -...